Joint Modern Languages Seminar
Josh Cohen (Goldsmiths, London), Sluggishness
In this paper, Professor Cohen will stage a conversation between various cultural and theoretical treatments of ‘sluggishness’. From Freud’s unsettling notion of ‘the inertia of the libido’ to Bataille’s idea of the ‘formless’ as the very logic of the universe, the motif of sluggishness puts in question the dialectical and progressive conception of the human being as a creature of action and purpose. The discussion will move, sluggishly and non-purposively, between theory, literature (Diderot, Goncharov) and popular culture (Lebowski, Homer Simpson).
This seminar is hosted by the departments of French, German and Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies.
Please note this seminar will take place in S-1.06 (1st basement level of the Strand Building).